There are 7,382 state senators and representatives in our country’s 50 state legislatures. In their 2015-16 legislative sessions, they passed a total of 29,122 bills into law. Over the same two years Congress enacted just 199 new laws.

Minnesota’s 201 legislators passed and Gov. Dayton signed into law 184 bills during our 2015-16 biennial session. These state laws impact every corner of Minnesotans’ lives. For example, new laws

Legislatures are not only productive and wide-ranging. They also move fast. For most there are just a few months to introduce a piece of legislation, discuss it in one or more committees, pass it with a floor vote in two chambers and get a governor’s signature. Minnesota’s recent biennial session was nineteen weeks in 2015 and eleven weeks in 2016.

Is passing more laws necessarily a good thing? Conservative humorist P.J. O’Rourke said, “I vote Republican because they have fewer ideas.”